Friday, July 22, 2011

Greece defaults, but let’s call it 'Margaret', or 'Mary-Ann'

When you examine the ‘aid’ package agreed last night to bail out bankrupt Greece (again) and keep the euro afloat, it amounts to a default. When you borrow cash on agreed terms and repayments cease because your bank account is empty, you’re not suffering a temporary cash-flow problem: you’re bankrupt. So if the lender should be stupid enough to lend you even more cash simply to enable you to go on paying him, it doesn’t take a dumbed-down GCSE in maths to work out that this money merry-go-round is a fiscal illusion. But this has been hailed as another great triumph of EU solidarity, and so Presidents Barosso, Van Rompuy and Papandreou drank champagne into the early hours of the morning, in awe of their economic flair and wonder at their political skill.

But while they call it ‘aid’, ‘restructuring’ and a ‘comprehensive agreement’, it amounts to default.

President Sarkozy said: "If the rating agencies are using the word you just used (default), it is not part of my vocabulary. Greece will pay its debt," he told assembled journalists and reporters.

Not in his vocabulary?

It reminds His Grace of a decade ago, when, much to the concern of British Euro-sceptics, a European Army was formed under the guise of a collaborative peacekeeping force. The then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, dismissively responded: “If you don't want to call it a European army, don't call it a European army. You can call it 'Margaret', you can call it 'Mary-Ann', you can find any name, but it is a joint effort for peacekeeping missions - the first time you have a joint, not bilateral, effort at European level."

You see, in the EU, not only can a word can mean whatever you want it to mean; if a word causes difficulty or inconvenience, a myriad of alternatives are available to make the concept palatable. Don’t like ‘European Army’? Call it ‘Margaret’ or ‘Mary-Ann’. Don’t like ‘European Constitution’? Call it ‘The Lisbon Treaty’. Don’t like ‘EU Taxation’? Call it ‘Value Added’, etc., etc.

Greece has defaulted, and that's beyond dispute. But, if it makes you feel better, we’ll call it ‘restructuring’. It’s a nice, progressive, positive, optimistic word, implying forward momentum, denoting accord and agreement. Yes, private lenders will be forced to contribute a considerable chunk of the €109bn package, but let’s not focus on that. The important thing is that a clear signal is sent to the markets to show the EU’s determination to ‘stem the crisis and turn the tide in Greece, thereby securing the future of the savings, pensions and jobs of our citizens all over Europe’.

And so the Nikkei index rose 1.2%, while the Hang Seng was up 1.5%. US stocks are up 1.2%, and the share prices of vulnerable EU banks rose by more than 5%, led by our very own Barclays, which ended 7.8% higher. As news of the agreement broke, the euro reached a two-week high against the dollar.

And everybody is happy.

Can these fools not see that this is all a farce? What on earth happens when this latest bailout runs out? Where will the next €100bn package come from? Will the Greeks mortgage the Acropolis? Sell Crete? Auction off Patmos, Lesbos and Corfu?

Short-termism is, of course, a natural consequence of the democratic cycle: since politicians are held directly accountable to their electorates only every four years or so, there is little incentive for them to implement unpopular policies today when they can be shunted off for their heirs and successors to grapple with tomorrow.

So we get sticking-plaster politics and antiseptic economics, when what is needed is immediate, remedial surgery and amputation.

But sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So let’s deal with balms, lozenges, tonics and panaceas to restore the stability of the eurozone.

This is now a debt liability Union.Extend, pretend, and inflate your way out of trouble. More of the same medicine and hoping for a different outcome.Meanwhile the periphery can hide escalating problems under the cloak of the triple A rating of the core, and rating agencies will probably turn a blind eye to a default to preserve global stability. Have they put enough in the kitty to cap Italian and Spanish bond yields? I doubt it. EU economic growth in the South is stagnating already and it will send the debt level trajectories into orbit. Once this reality kicks in it will all start to unravel again. Sarkozy's statement about this being a one off for Greece and they won't do it for another country will come back to haunt him. Those he thinks are too big to fail are too big to bail.

When will the MSM in this country tell us the truth. If the true horror of the situation was reported correctly maybe then the British people would demand action on our membership of this corrupt regime.

It's a shame 'Burning our money' no longer blogs as that particular blog seemed to have its finger on the pulse of financial shenanigans, not that it would make any difference to most peoples perceptions as most people rely on the msm.

They are thieves, liars and scam artists. All of them.Mr Singh, We the people are not sovereign I'm afraid, until we have a Parliament that listens to the voice of the people, the people who have cried out for ages against this legalised band of brigands and liars. A Parliament of honest English yeoman who have the guts of their ancestors to stand against this tyranical charade of egotistical chancers, and say enough is enough. Game over. We're off!.Until that happens we will either be classified as rebellious Euro sceptics.Or become the unthinkable alternative, Euro serfs.Until then, EEC rules Albion.

LOL!More likely Gollum would sell the Austrians ours and pocket the proceeds. I can see it now, Austria: "But the English Navy has no ships. They can't afford them since they joined the EU".Gollum: " What do you need ships for?, you're landlocked. Now about the EEC mooring fees...".

As usual the EU summit is a bag of hot air- they have produced zero new money to really did with this crisis if they are really intent upon saving the Euro. I am not sure how Chancellor Merkel will get this deal through the Reichstag because it is the first step of a transfer union- i.e. Germany will be forever transfering cash to Greece and club med for decades to come.

The markets will eventually wake up and realise that this smoke and mirrors (akin to when Gordon Brown was chancellor) solves nothing and the real choice- full transfer union with an EU Treasury and a common Euro bond- or the exit of the Club med states & Ireland from the Euro will have to be made.

For Britain's part, we should not be paying a single penny into any rescue fund as we are not in the single currency (thankfully) and in fact we could be lobbying for a sterling bloc- a loose association of sovereign states for who want to trade with each other- for those countries who are fed up with Euro control and Euro domination & France and Germany forever telling everyone else what to do.

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

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The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

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Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

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